Shalom! This is Rabbi Jonathan Ginsburg of the [Foreign Language] Jewish corrugation in Illinois. This video is about Jewish marriage. So what is required for Jewish marriage?
First of all two Jews have to be eligible to be married. For tradition with Judaism that is conservative and Orthodox Rabbis that you have to be born of a Jewish mother or convert to Judaism. On the case of some reform and reconstruction is Rabbi, if either parent is Jewish they were raised jewishly, they are considered Jewish.
Now, once that is true and also they have to be free to marry. There is another video I have in Jewish divorced and I recommend you see that if you have been married before, that may complicate the question of Jewish marriage or you have to be free and not married to anybody else. So, for tradition of Judaism that made of you a married to a Jew before, besides having a secular divorced, you need to have a Jewish divorced called [Foreign Language].
Okay, is you have free to marries Masaltof, what you do? First you will need a Hopah which is a canopy of some kind. Usually held on for oppose who can be a Kallas or some material. You also need 2 kiddersh caps. You need to have at least a ring for the bride but now a days, every marriage as I do has a ring for both. You need a Katubah. Now give me a couple of examples,
The katuba is a document that is thousand of years old but basically it is elamony settlement. In ancient times, it is protects the woman, the man have to promised that have to should got divorced she was entitled to certain amount of money.
Today, since the state law or supersedes the civil law, the Jewish law here of the get end of the Katubah, we use it for mostly [Foreign Language] purposes as a legal binding feeling between the two. Here is an example of one of the standard, kind of a conservative Katubah and it has tree sections, English, Hebrew, which are both of kind of spiritual vows between the two and the middle is an ancient Aramaic which has the traditional language.
At the bottom of this one and we recommend that you do this, there is something called the [Foreign Language], which is basically says that you both agree of the marriage that entered the ever be ended civilly agreed and the jewishly. That is to avoid any problem of the husband down the road being reluctant and that is explain where my YouTube video on divorced.
Besides this one with guide give to couples free, you prepared it if you want to engage in artist to do one. I will show you an example here of a one that can was a nice lift a graphs, somebody had and then I was actually done with calligraphy, fill them with their names and there was locked up and that is the nicest to do it.
Now the ceremony itself, well there are pre ceremony things to take care of one is the signing of the state license, one of the signing of the Jewish license, you need Jewish witnesses where are, you know how to write your names in Hebrew. Orthodox Rabbis require them to be observant Jews. We also have some they call it the [Foreign Language] a nice prayer of the groom and the bride to each other to make sure as the right bride and groom in a moment for them to look at each other.
Also if there is a deceased parent or in my case I do a decease grand parent too we offer normally a [Foreign Language] memorial prayer. Then they walked down the aisle and it is really know Jewish rules about walking down the aisle. We do not use certain music like Here Comes the Bride, the bride is always last and otherwise it really does not matter how they come down.
You stand under the Hopah and the husband is my back is to the arc, it is now the groom would be on my right and the bride on my left.
And sometimes in the Eastern European tradition, the bride would walk around the groom seven times or now a days, sometimes they walking on each other three and once they do dozy dough. We welcome them in Hebrew in English. Which is certain language, we lift up the first cup of wine and we chant the blessing for [Foreign Language] basically.
The next they exchange rings and what they do is that the first the groom gives the bride a ring. Puts it on her right hand index finger just for this ceremony and says in Hebrew, I with this ring I marry you according to the law Moses and the people of Israel and puts it on her finger and they are married.
In an often times she will say the same thing but change in the grammar or some way Rabbis do not like it for to say exact the same things that come up with some other phrase for her to say.
After the ring ceremony we read the Katubah. Now a lot of Rabbis do not read the long thing because it is ten minutes of boring Aramaic. Orthodox Rabbis are tends to read the whole thing. And somewhere in there the Rabbi usually will all offer a little speech about a couple and about Jewish marriage and about something significant of the day.
Following the recitation of the Katubah, then we will move to the second cup which are based on the seven wedding blessings. Seven blessings thanking god for enabling us to reach all this moment, and often times the Rabbi are chanter will chant them. If you want family to participate that is often a good place where they can do some of the blessing.
Following that, the Rabbi will do the priestly benediction, over the couple will pronounce them husband and wife, we will put a glass down. The groom will step on the glass and of course after the [Foreign Language] hope before this, you drink the second cup of wine and both cases, the groom and the bride get wine to drink or grape juice if they do not drink wine.
And the breaking of the glass is a symbol has many different meanings. It started out with a Rabbi in the middle age are strong at glass against the wall because people will make in too much noise. Then later on it got to be a memory of the destruction the temple. But we often say that justice life is fragile, marriage is fragile, you got to be a very attentive to the marriage at the same time everyone knows that signifies the great moment of joy and the creating a new family.
And then after the wedding and after the breaking of the glass, the couple and there we the party, receives the couple then he has to go be by themselves for a while that is called Yehud, and you often have two guards to go stand outside the door with them and that concludes the Jewish aspects of the wedding.
If there are a religious family, then at the soon that meets at the dinner to follow they often do the [Foreign Language] again. In Orthodox couples actually do not go on honeymoons. They spend the week going from house to house for lunch and dinner. Having greeting friends or having more a parties with the [Foreign Language], but that is send you on your way jewishly to a Jewish marriage life together.
For more details and explanations consult your Rabbi.
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